Day 35 in Colombia!

We awoke bright and early this morning! I am not a morning person, and either is my boy! So it was a bit of a challenge to be ready to go by 8:30 am, but we did it! Maria Teresa picked us up and off we went to pick up Erin and Lucas. All 5 of us headed to the US Embassy to get visas for the boys.

I had no idea how long of a process it was going to be, but I expected we’d be gone until well into the afternoon. Owen doesn’t do well being physically attached to his Mama that long, so I knew I had to plan appropriately…diapers, check… bottles, check…formula, check… toys, check…many, many crackers, check!

We arrived at the Embassy and went through security without a problem. Once through Maria Teresa helped Erin and me fill out our I-600 forms. By then, Owen was getting pretty bored and was no longer having fun being secured to his mama. The I-600 is a rather long form to fill out when you have an upset 1 year old attached to you! After a few crackers that ended up mostly in Owen’s mouth (the rest were all over his face and his mama’s clothes!) I was able to complete the form. With the forms completed, all we had to do was wait for our names to be called. We were originally told by another family that it would be about a 2 hour wait before we’d talk to someone, followed by another 45 minute wait before we’d be done with the process. Yikes! That's a long wait!!

Owen kept himself entertained for a while watching all the other kids running around, but then it was time for him to get moving. He first decided to crawl under the chairs, then he bolted off across the room (he’s sure fast on all fours!) Lucky for us, it did not take nearly as long as we had originally thought. We had our “interview” which was very, very low key and then we got an appointment card allowing us to come back tomorrow at 3:30 to pick up Owen’s visa. By 1:00, we were back at our apartment. Tomorrow we pick up his visa and then we’ll be done with all the paperwork and ready to leave for home!

The rest of our afternoon was spent running errands, getting things organized for our trip home, and playing of course! Owen decided to switch from the water jug and instead use his xylophone as his source of transportation around the apartment. His xylophone has wheels, so it’s much faster, which he loves!!

He also found a new toy - a granola bar! He thought it was the neatest thing (it must have been the shiny wrapping!)

For some reason, he thought the granola bar was a telephone. He put it up to his ear and started gabbing away!

Then it was time to move onto the next toy...his socks!

With Mama clicking away at the camera, Owen wanted to see what I was doing. So he would stick his face in the camera and then laugh and point at his picture in the display screen. Here's a photo he especially liked...

He's also invented a new way to make the noise of finger nails on a chalk board by scraping his new toy across the tile floor. He thinks it's pretty funny when Grandma squirms in her seat from the awful noise!

"Have a wonderful night everyone! It's off to bed for me (or so my Mom thinks!!)"